Press Release – Page 15 of 61 – Pirate Party Australia

Pirate Party candidate makes final pitch in by-election

Posted on September 18, 2015

In the final day of the Canning By-Election, Pirate Party Australia’s candidate Michelle Allen is making her final pitch to voters. Whilst both major Parties are offering more of the same, the IT Manager is putting forward a different way of tackling the social issues faced by the people of Canning.

The following is a statement to the Canning electorate from Michelle on behalf of herself and the Pirate Party.

Hello Canning voters, my name is Michelle and I’m standing for the seat of Canning on behalf of Pirate Party Australia. Today is international Talk like a Pirate day, and I’d urge you to turn it into Vote like a Pirate day, I’m not only here to say “Arrrr”, I’m here with policy substance as well. For me Talking like a Pirate means to talk about sensible scientifically driven, evidence based ideas, that are the best ideas for our country’s future and which are designed to derive the most social benefit for our people. In other words, for you and me.

The Pirate Party is a political movement founded primarily upon concerns about civil liberties, digital rights, equality, fairness, personal privacy, government transparency and participatory democracy. These are all principles that reach all the way down to the local level, including for the people of Canning. Our full and growing platform can be found at http://platform.pirateparty.org.au/ I think you’ll find that most of what is in there makes good sense and should ring true to you. Today I’d like to focus on how some of these polices can be applied to the issues that I’ve been hearing are of concern to people in Canning and which the major party candidates have been making quite a bit of noise about.

We have been hearing all of the usual rhetoric from the major Parties in this campaign. The Liberal Party candidate Andrew Hastie has called for a crack-down on Ice[1][2], with harsher penalties and more enforcement. The war on drugs has raged for my whole life and probably yours as well. If the solution was more punishment, then this issue would have been solved decades ago. We believe drug addiction should be treated as a health issue. Criminalising users only makes more prisoners, it does nothing to tackle addiction or the social dislocation that creates addicts.

The Pirate Party offers an alternative vision[3]. In Portugal we have seen the benefits of drug decriminalisation and addiction rates have plummeted[4]. The streets are safer and the risk of drug users overdosing has significantly decreased. We believe that a similar approach in Australia would make more of a difference than another ‘tough on crime campaign’. To tackle social dislocation, a driving factor in people turning to drugs, we propose a guaranteed basic income[5] instead of the meagre payments people can access while unemployed. This enables people to survive whilst learning new skills and removes the stigma attached to being out of work.

Meanwhile the Liberal party assault on young Australians who are victims of the governments own economic failings continues, with Social Services Minister Scott Morrison reintroducing his bill to extend waiting times for jobseekers to access Newstart payments[6].

If the Liberal party were serious about finding solutions to crime, why introduce a Bill that could force young people to choose between crime, or hunger and homelessness. I ask Andrew Hastie, does he share Morrison’s view that denying welfare to jobseekers somehow magically creates jobs that previously did not exist? If they are serious about welfare reform, why not look at the entire system and not just look at ways to make it tougher on Australians already doing it tough?

If the track record of this government continues, unemployment is only going to get worse. Not only have Hastie’s friends in Canberra attempted to peg the economy to a waning resources boom, they have aggressively set about destroying possible new areas of innovation and job creation by smashing our local renewables industry. Manufacturing has been abandoned and sent offshore, while CSIRO funding has been slashed. The disregard for science and innovation by this government has been obvious to everyone from day one, they didn’t even bother to appoint a minister for science.

Science, innovation and investment in new industries such as the renewable sector is essential for the future of our country. We cannot rely on mining forever, and nowhere is that more starkly obvious than here in WA. We stand to suffer greatly from any further downturn in the market for resources. Comprehensive investment in education and science is essential. The Pirate Party education policy not only enshrines this focus on science, but advocates for a national science plan.[7] Allowing people the education, skills, freedom and ability to explore new innovative and creative business ideas is one of the ways we can better prepare ourselves for a changing economy.

The Pirate Party policy for a Basic Income through reverse taxation is the kind of bold innovative reform to welfare and taxation that our country needs. Not only will this ensure people have the freedom to try out new innovative business ideas, but its simplification of the current morass of different welfare payments and taxation systems will spark investment, save money spent on bureaucracy, empower people to take control of their own destiny and help protect the Australian people and economy from market fluctuations, automation and the offshoring of jobs. A basic income is an idea that has ben trialled with success and is getting more attention[8] as we move into a future of increased automation and labour market change.

Both the Liberal and the Labor party offer more of the same old simplistic solutions to complex issues, with some differences to each other around the edges. Canning does not have a monopoly on these issues, but some are felt harder here than elsewhere in the country. These are issues which have their roots in national and even global forces. I don’t refute the fact that both Andrew Hastie and Matt Keogh probably mean what they say when they claim that they will work hard, “roll up their sleeves” and dedicate themselves to tackling crime, ice, drugs and jobs in Canning. But while their promise of hard work are commendable traits, and I’m sure every candidate on the Canning ballot will put in hard work and dedicate themselves to the people of Canning, I know I would, hard work alone is not enough to solve these issues. They need new ideas and new approaches first.

Andrew Hastie for instance seems to think he can bring to bear his military training to solve these issues through brute force of will and via his toughness forged in combat. Matt Keogh has shown himself all to willing to be just another cog in the Labor party machinery. Both major party candidates offer more of that same and that is no longer working for our nation.

Tougher sentencing, war on drugs, harsher treatment of welfare recipients, increased surveillance, harsher penalties, more policing… it is the same thing over and over again that has been tried and failed over and over again. We need new solutions, and a new way of doing things if we are to really tackle the problems we face. The answers aren’t the simplistic and easy answers that the major parties want to distract you with. This by-election gives you, the people of Canning, an opportunity to show the major parties that we are sick and tired of trying the same failed tactics over and over again. Let’s show the major parties, and the career politicians behind them, that we are willing to try to do things a smarter way, to end the delusion that doing the same thing that has failed elsewhere will somehow work here. If we keep swapping our “1” votes between the two major parties, they will continue taking us for granted. I’d like to think we are all better than that.

Michelle Allen,
Pirate Party Candidate for Canning.

[1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-10/canning-candidate-andrew-hastie-calls-for-stronger-ice-penalties/6764510
[2] https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/ice-use-australia-%E2%80%93-perception-very-different-reality
[3] https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policies/Drugs
[4] http://www.tdpf.org.uk/blog/drug-decriminalisation-portugal-setting-record-straight
[5] https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Platform#Tax_and_welfare
[6] http://www.skynews.com.au/news/politics/national/2015/09/16/morrison-told–stop-flogging-dead-horse-.html
[7] https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policies/Education
[8] http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/would-you-work-if-you-didnt-have-to/story-fnu2pycd-1227531288369

Facial Recognition System on the Nose

Posted on September 16, 2015

On Wednesday September 9 the Australian government, as one of its weekly National Security announceables, announced increased funding for The National Facial Biometric Matching Capability[1]. This technology gives law enforcement agencies the ability to use images that were captured for the creation of drivers licenses, passports, and so on, to cross-reference and identify people via CCTV. While it is being pitched as a great tool for catching terrorists, we fear that this technology could be re-purposed into a means of putting the entire population under real-time surveillance, and has the potential for false positives to pull innocent people into cases they played no part in.

The Pirate Party calls upon the new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to do away with the theatrics of weekly National Security announceables, which serve no purpose other than political point scoring. We also call on the government to change tack and stop the relentless march towards a police state in an attempt to wedge the ALP.

“Every few weeks the government launches another assault on our civil liberties and every week the ALP waves it through,” said Michelle Allen, Pirate Party candidate for the Canning By-Election. “Our basic rights are under bi-partisan assault in an effort to appear tough on terrorism and crime. Abbott continually attacked civil liberties as a tactic to wedge the ALP. It is time to say enough. We believe that Australians should be treated as citizens not suspects. We call on Malcolm Turnbull to stop the attacks on our freedoms and to restore our civil liberties that have withered under the Abbott government.”

War on Drugs: Another way is possible

Posted on September 7, 2015

On Friday September 4, the government announced plans to ban synthetic drugs and authorised Border Force to seize chemicals with a 'psycho-active' effect and no 'legitimate' use[1]. This plan seems to be a carbon copy of a similar ban in the UK that has already been criticised for its potentially harmful effects on medical research into areas such as Parkinson's disease and anti-smoking solutions[2]. Such a ban could also stymie research into safer alternatives to more harmful substances. This wrong headed approach is typical of the crazy, ever escalating "war on drugs", which has long been shown to be a complete failure. A new approach needs to be taken to reduce the harm caused by drugs, and the associated problems caused by prohibition.

"It seems the only way this government deals with any issue is to make more and more draconian laws. They are not only utterly bereft of imagination or nuance on any issue, but they only know how to appeal to base instincts and simplistic non-solutions that look tough, but achieve little," said Michelle Allen, Pirate Party candidate for the Canning By-election. "Prohibition only works to create black markets and organised crime as otherwise decent, law abiding people are turned into criminals for preferring to consume different substances to alcohol."

Pirate Party launches crowdfunding campaign for Canning by-election

Posted on September 2, 2015

Today the Pirate Party is launching a crowdfunding campaign[1] to raise at least $3,000 for its candidate Michelle Allen, running in the Canning by-election[2].

“Crowdfunding the resources we need for elections has proven to work well for us in the past,” said Tom Randle, Pirate Party Councillor. “Given our embrace of distributed participation, we’re able to run our election campaigns at a very low-cost while connecting our members from all over Australia to help Michelle’s campaign to be as successful as it can be.”

Vote like a Pirate Day! Pirate Party announces Canning by-election candidate

Posted on August 25, 2015

Pirate Party Australia is pleased to announce that its Western Australian members have voted to preselect former WA Senate candidate Michelle Allen as its candidate for the Canning by-election.

Michelle Allen has lived around the Canning electorate for most of her life. Michelle is currently working as a Software Development Manager for a Perth based company where she has over a decade of experience in all areas of Information Technology. She has a long history of advocating for equality, human rights and copyright reform in Australia. Michelle believes all Australians should be treated equally, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, social status or belief, and has campaigned to ensure that everyone in Australia is given a fair go.

“This is a chance for us to show both the current government, and the so-called opposition, how unhappy we are with their constant efforts to quash our digital liberties and basic human rights,” said Canning candidate Michelle Allen, “We will show them we won’t stand by while they simply kowtow to the interests of their corporate donors while pushing policies that benefit their mates or appeal to fear rather than the well considered evidence based policies that the country needs to progress.”

This is the Pirate Party’s second run in a House of Representatives seat. Melanie Thomas came 4th in a field of 11 candidates in the 2014 Griffith by-election. Pirate Party Australia also ran candidates for the Senate in a number of states in the 2013 Federal election, as well as in the 2014 WA special Senate election. Co-incidentally, the date of the Canning by-election is the same day as “Talk Like a Pirate Day” which Pirate Party Australia hopes will be another reason for voters to “Vote like a Pirate”.

“While we know that this is quite a different situation to Griffith, we hope that when voters see our evidence based, common sense policies they will consider supporting the Pirate Party. In my experience, once people see what we stand for, and see that we are serious about becoming a viable political alternative to the major parties, neither of which represent the interests of the average Australian, voting Pirate just makes sense,” continued Michelle.

While the Pirate Party was founded with a focus on digital rights, civil liberties, privacy and copyright reform, the party has since expanded its policy set to a wide array of science based, evidence driven policies in areas that concern many Australians. These policies include, but are not limited to, support for marriage equality, better education outcomes and support for science, a sensible and humane approach to asylum seekers, drug law reforms, comprehensive support for renewable energy, and a comprehensive tax reform & welfare policy that both massively simplifies the tax system but maintains fairness and progressiveness. The full Pirate Party policy platform can be found at https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Platform.

Pirate Party Australia is a federally registered political party founded in late 2008, and contested its first Federal Election in 2013. Pirate Party Australia is part of a worldwide movement that began in Sweden in 2006, and has since spread to more than 40 different countries. Pirate Parties have been elected to all levels government — local, state, national and supranational — with 44 state seats in Germany, three seats in the Icelandic Parliament, and a member of the European Parliament.

Candidate Page: https://pirateparty.org.au/candidates/